Nguyen Huu Tho

Nguyen Huu Tho (10 July 1910-24 December 1996) was Chairman of the Provisional Government of South Vietnam from 6 June 1969 to 2 July 1976 and the acting President of Vietnam from 30 March 1980 to 4 July 1981. He was a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Biography
Nguyen Huu Tho was born in Ben Luc, French Indochina in 1910, and he studied law in Paris and began a law practice in Saigon. As a member of the Viet Minh he led an anti-Frenc]h] demonstration there in 1949 and in 1950 was imprisoned for criticism of [[US involvement in the area. After the Geneva Agreements he tried to cooperate with Ngo Dinh Diem, but quarrelled over the issue of nationwide elections, which Diem refused to allow. He was in prison from 1958 until 1961, when he escaped. A socialist rather than a communist, he became chairman of the Viet Cong in 1962. In 1969 he became chairperson of the Advisory Council of the Provisional Government of South Vietnam. He became one of the most important former activists of South Vietnam to join the government after unification, serving briefly as acting President from 1980 to 1981. He died in 1996.